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Mass suicide attempt reported among ‘extremely vulnerable’ adults and children on British overseas territoryThe home secretary, Yvette Cooper, is under mounting pressure to airlift a group of more than 60 Tamil asylum seekersfrom a remote Indian Ocean island to the UK.The Tamils, a mix of single adults and children who are part of family units, have been stranded on Diego Garcia, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), since October 2021. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Higher limit reflects longer race, while cash-strapped party seeks £50,000 from candidates to cover costsThe Conservatives have set the spending limit in their leadership contest at £400,000, as the beaten and skint opposition party tries to use the race to cover costs.Robert Jenrick, a frontrunner who has been preparing for the contest for some time, had pressed for a higher cap. The £400,000 limit is £100,000 more than it was in the last contest, two years ago. Continue reading...

‘Draconian’ bannings, including of two local councillors, follow original candidate’s withdrawal at behest of local partyThe Green party has been accused of acting in a draconian and authoritarian way after a number of members were expelled for allegedly trying to support tactical voting to defeat Jeremy Hunt at the general election.At least three members, two of them councillors, have been banned from the party until 2029. One of those expelled said it seemed to go directly against the Green values of internal party democracy and tolerance. Continue reading...

Labour government announces its biggest step yet in overhauling the UK’s approach to the Middle EastMiddle East crisis live – latest updatesLabour has announced its biggest step yet in overhauling the UK’s approach to the Middle East, dropping its opposition to an international arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu despite pressure from Washington not to do so.Downing Street announced on Friday that the government would not submit a challenge to the jurisdiction of the international criminal court, whose chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is seeking a warrant against the Israeli prime minister. Continue reading...

Rachel Reeves is expected to accept pay review body recommendations in move that could cost up to £10bnMillions of public sector workers are set for an above-inflation pay rise due to be announced by Rachel Reeves next week after more than a decade of austerity.The chancellor is expected to accept the recommendations of public sector pay bodies for pay increases on Monday – a move economists believe could cost up to £10bn. Continue reading...

Energy secretary seeks to reestablish UK as a global leader on the climate crisis with meeting of Cop presidentsLabour will honour a pledge of £11.6bn in overseas aid for the climate crisis, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, told an unusual meeting of Cop presidents past and present on Friday, as he sought to re-establish the UK at the heart of international climate discussions.As the Labour government prepares for this year’s climate-emergency summit in November, Miliband hosted Mukhtar Babayev, the Azerbaijan government minister who will lead Cop29, and Ana Toni, the top official on the climate for Brazil, which will host Cop30 in the Amazonian city of Belem in 2025 in a meeting to dis..

Controversial measure is paused with the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, indicating that it could be repealedThe cost of England’s four biggest killer diseases could rise to £86bn a year by 2050, prompting calls for a crackdown on alcohol, junk food and smoking.The ageing population means the annual cost of cancer, heart disease, dementia and stroke combined will go from the £51.9bn recorded in 2018 to £85.6bn in 2050 – a rise of 61%.More importantly, you must now come clean on where the axe will fall under your plans and whether you intend to cut public services, raise taxes or both – having previously denied you would do either.”The excuses currently being lined-up will..

Education secretary ‘to consider options’ including repeal of controversial powers introduced by last governmentUK politics live – latest updatesPowers introduced by the Conservatives to protect freedom of speech in universities have been halted by the new government in a dramatic about-turn, paving the way for ministers to scrap the legislation.Only days before it was due to come into force, the education secretary said she had decided to “stop further commencement of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, in order to consider options, including its repeal”. Continue reading...

Shadow minister turns on critics over claims she was behind abusive blog comments written 17 years agoUK politics live – latest updatesKemi Badenoch has accused one of her Conservative leadership rivals of a dirty tricks campaign against her as she continues to consider a bid for the top job.The shadow business secretary attacked her critics after a dossier was circulated claiming she was behind anonymous blog comments written 17 years ago in which the author celebrated being rude and made abusive remarks. Continue reading...

Communities affected by construction of renewable energy infrastructure ‘have the right to see the benefits’UK politics live – latest updatesLabour will seek to persuade people living near proposed pylon routes and other renewable energy infrastructure that the developments are critical to bring down bills and tackle carbon emissions, the energy secretary said.Ed Miliband promised to consider new benefits for communities affected by the construction of renewable energy infrastructure, and community ownership of the assets, which could include onshore windfarms and solar farms. Continue reading...

Bank left with costs from Sir Trevor McDonald-fronted campaign after early election halted rolloutBusiness live – latest updatesNatWest was forced to spend £24m on the former Conservative government’s aborted “Tell Sid”-style campaign featuring Sir Trevor McDonald, which would have resulted in a chunk of the bank’s state-owned shares being sold to the general public in a highly anticipated privatisation drive.The price tag emerged when the bank released its second-quarter results and announced that it was snapping up a number of mortgages from the smaller rival Metro Bank for £2.4bn. Continue reading...

Tory MPs opposed to this human right have been swept away. On Friday in the Lords, a path towards choice will finally be setEvery Labour government forges ahead with life-changing liberal reforms, and this one will be no exception. Expect the right to die to be one of this government’s landmarks, removing one of the last barriers to freedom over our own bodies. Everyone must die, but the greatest dread is exiting the world through a torture chamber. Once assured that we need never bear the unbearable, death would lose much of its sting.While other countries allow the mortally ill to be released from the last stages of life if they wish, the British have been denied that choice, mainly by t..

From Grenfell to Covid, such investigations are set up to bring change and restore public trust. But none of this is happeningCould you name the 18 public inquiries currently open in the UK? I will start you off: the deadly fire at Grenfell Tower; the overreach of undercover policing; the abuse of children in care in Scotland; the mistreatment of migrants at the Brook House removal centre; the conduct of British troops in the war in Afghanistan; the abuse of patients at Muckamore Abbey hospital in Northern Ireland; responses to the Covid-19 pandemic; the deaths of mental health inpatients in Essex; the Post Office Horizon scandal; the responsibility of the state in the Omagh bombings; and fa..

From Los Angeles to Cairo, the global water crisis is escalating – but Valencia’s Tribunal de les Aigües could inspire a solutionEvery Thursday at noon, outside the west door of Valencia’s cathedral, nine black-cloaked figures – one wearing a banded cap and with a ceremonial harpoon by their side – gather for their weekly meeting, as they have done for hundreds of years. This is the Tribunal de les Aigües (Tribunal of Waters) – a water court that may be the oldest institution of justice in Europe.It may seem like a relic of the past, but in fact, in the midst of a global water crisis, the tribunal is more relevant than ever. We are a civilisation at risk of committing aquacide...

Rachel Reeves will next week highlight figures showing a tougher picture than Osborne received in 2010Reeves expected to reveal £20bn shortfallRachel Reeves is preparing to announce Treasury analysis of Labour’s spending inheritance from the Conservatives in parliament on Monday to highlight why she will need to make “tough decisions” in her autumn budget.The chancellor’s audit is expected to show £20bn in commitments left unaccounted for by the previous government, building on a narrative that the Tories have left Labour with the “worst set of circumstances since the second world war”. Continue reading...

The new government is right to want to restore trust in politics, but its lobbying curbs on MPs do not go far enoughIn his first speech to the new parliament, Sir Keir Starmer told MPs: “The fight for trust is the battle that defines our political era.” It was a powerful call to attention. It was also wholly justified. Trust in politics, parliament and government has long been in decline, but slumped to new depths in the last parliament. Without decisive remedial action, the credibility of our democratic system remains at risk. Politics must clean up its act.Labour has come to power promising changes and using ambitious rhetoric. The manifesto called for “..

And the best news is, the leadership contenders can no longer do any harm to anyone but themselvesGo on. Admit it. There’s a small part of you that’s missed the psychodramas. Not necessarily the existential angst of lying in bed each night wondering what fresh hell the government was going to unleash on us the following day. But certainly the infighting. For the last five years or so, watching the Tories implode with little help from the opposition parties had become one of the country’s favourite spectator sports.The general election had put an end to that. Most of us had forgotten what serious government looked like. Ministers going about their business in a calm and capable manner. ..

Parliament’s fusty old procedures badly need updating. The PM should start with a spectacle that serves no benefitBoring. That was the universal response to Wednesday’s first prime minister’s questions of the new parliament. Where was the screaming, yelling, insulting and air punching? This is supposed to be Strictly Come Politicking. Get off stage, the two of you. Zero points.The Telegraph condemned the new PMQs as a “love-in”. The prime minister was like a teenager “breaking the news he had lost his virginity”, according to one headline. For an Independent columnist it was intolerably tame, just “good-natured joshing”. The Times’s sketch writer concluded that the new ho..

Think local, listen to the experts and get diverse voices in the room. If we plan effectively, we can avoid another catastropheLucy Easthope is an international adviser on disaster response and recoveryIt’s hard to know where to start if you are a brand new government taking on a mega-survey of risk and potential emergencies in the UK. Beyond the Covid-19 pandemic, the challenges are many. I am an adviser in UK emergency planning and have worked on almost every disaster involving British citizens since 2001, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the Grenfell Tower fire. My inbox is full with questions of how to prepare for prison overspill, plans to prev..

The UK needs a robust, competent centre-right party to stave off the threat of the populist rightThe contest to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader may seem like an argument between corpses in a tomb. The candidates are yesterday’s rejects. Not even the hysterical headline-writers of the Tory press can bring themselves to hype the race as they would in the triumphalist years. The infantile tabloid screams of “Boris this” or “Suella that” seem to have gone quiet, though probably only briefly.After the babel of those years, a period of relative Tory silence will be welcome to many. But the future of the Conservative party is a genuinely important matter – not just to Tories ..

Collectives such as Pattern Up use the visual signifiers of well-known brands to deliver satirical statements. ‘It’s something everyone can relate to – which is dark,’ they sayLabour’s landslide win in the general election saw many Conservative MPs experience a Portillo moment. Top Tories including Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt and Jacob Rees-Mogg were unseated by discontented constituents. But, a few days before, something a wee bit different took place: a Portaloo moment. Overnight, a mobile toilet popped up on the streets of Shoreditch, east London, complete with a Polling Booth sign and ballot paper loo roll. A true safe seat, if you will. It was the latest potty-mouthed inst..

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We’re making the case for 21st-century, modern public ownership that serves our communitiesEd Miliband is the energy secretaryThe public voted for change at the general election. Perhaps nowhere more than when it comes to energy. Every person and business has paid the price of our country’s energy insecurity. As Vladimir Putin sought to use energy as a weapon in his illegal invasion of Ukraine, bills went through the roof in a cost of living crisis unprecedented in modern times.As the Climate Change Committee (CCC) recently made clear, there is one obvious answer to preventing us being so exposed again – a sprint for homegrown clean energy. As it said in its progress report to parliame..

A continuous demonstration of intra-party unity and loyalty to the party leader won’t solve Britain’s problemsThe Labour party is a “broad church”, but there’s little space on its pews at the moment for principled nonconformists. The suspension of seven leftwing MPs for rebelling over the abolition of the two-child benefit cap is a curious affair, given that almost all their colleagues agreed with them. The two-child cap, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households. It impoverishes children, punishes ethnic minorities and humiliates women who have been raped. Unfair and morally repugnant, it i..

Seven of us voted for a motion to end the two-child benefit cap – not as ‘gesture politics’, but to fight for a cause we believe inJohn McDonnell is the MP for Hayes and HarlingtonWhat is it that drove, on Tuesday night, seven Labour MPs to vote for an amendment tabled in parliament by another party, with the virtual certainty of losing the party whip as a consequence? The answer is that some issues are so important, so pressing and so at the core of one’s beliefs that the seriousness of the risk demonstrates the seriousness of the issue at stake.The revulsion at witnessing large-scale child poverty in our society was one of the key motivating factors for the early socialists who cam..

By removing whip from seven MPs, PM makes clear that he is not about to abandon his ruthless mode of operating A new Labour prime minister with a landslide majority faced the first real test of his authority with a party rebellion from MPs concerned about a tough stance on welfare.That prime minister was Tony Blair, in December 1997, when 47 Labour MPs voted against the government including a frontbench resignation over a bill to cut benefits for single-parent families. But no one lost the whip. Continue reading...

Whitehall sources say it could be a more open competition than in past as Simon Case prepares to step downSimon Case is expected to step down as cabinet secretary early next year on medical advice, after taking time off for health reasons last year.The former royal aide, appointed by Boris Johnson to the top job in the civil service during the pandemic, has overseen Whitehall departments through the Partygate scandal as well as the premierships of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Continue reading...

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